The BAM passes north of the Trans-Siberian Railway, branching from it in the city of Taishet, Irkutsk region, on its way it crosses the Angara in Bratsk, the Lena in Ust-Kut and then passes through Severobaikalsk, bending around Baikal from the north. Next, the BAM goes through the remote mountainous territories of Buryatia, Chita and Amur regions through Tynda, crossing the Vitim, Olekma rivers and the Zeya reservoir. The further route of the BAM passes through the territory of the Khabarovsk Territory, where the main line crosses the Amur in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. The BAM ends on the shores of the Pacific Ocean in Sovetskaya Gavan.
BAM has several branches - to Ust-Ilimsk (215 km); to a number of mineral deposits; in three places the BAM is connected to the Trans-Siberian Railway by connecting branches (Tynda - Bamovskaya, Novy Urgal - Izvestkovaya, Komsomolsk-on-Amur - Volochaevka (Khabarovsk)), from the Tynda station of the Baikal-Amur Mainline it branches to the north Amur-Yakutsk Mainline(which should very soon reach the banks of the Lena), connecting the territory of Yakutia with the country’s railway network; depart from Vanino station railway ferries to Sakhalin.
Construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline began before the war: in 1938, construction work began on the section from Taishet to Bratsk, in 1939 - on the eastern section from Komsomolsk-on-Amur to Sovetskaya Gavan. The work at that time was carried out mainly by prisoners. During the difficult years of the war, construction was suspended for some time, but soon construction was continued - in 1947 the Komsomolsk - Sovetskaya Gavan section was commissioned, in 1958 the Taishet - Bratsk - Ust-Kut section was put into permanent operation: the road reached the banks of the upper Lena River , work continued in areas west of Komsomolsk-on-Amur.
In 1967, a resolution of the Council of Ministers was issued on the resumption of construction of the BAM and the organization of a through railway of category I between Taishet and Komsomolsk-on-Amur, after which active design and survey work on the BAM route began again. Active construction of the highway resumed in 1974 - BAM was declared an all-Union Komsomol shock construction project, which was attended by thousands of young people from all over the country.
The central, main part of the BAM was built over 12 years, from 1972 to 1984, and on November 1, 1989, the entire new three-thousand-kilometer section of the highway (with the exception of the Severomuysky tunnel, which was built until 2003) was put into permanent operation within the scope of the launch complex .
The route of the Baikal-Amur Mainline runs mainly in mountainous areas, cutting through seven mountain ranges. The highest point of the route is Mururinsky Pass (1323 meters above sea level); when entering, steep slopes require the use of double traction and limiting the maximum weight of trains from 5600 to 4200 tons.
Ten tunnels have been built on the BAM highway, among them the longest in Russia Severomuysky tunnel, having a length of 15343 meters. From the point of view of excavation and construction, this tunnel, passing through the North-Muysky ridge, is one of the most difficult in the world. It was built intermittently for 28 years - from 1975 to 2003. In order not to delay the start of transit traffic along the BAM, in 1982-1983 and 1985-1989, two bypasses of this tunnel were built with a length of 25 and 54 kilometers, representing the most complex railway serpentine with extreme curves and slopes. After the opening of through traffic through the Severomuysky tunnel, the capacity of the BAM increased significantly; the bypass became a reserve route, but it is maintained, and some trains also pass through it.
The Baikal-Amur Mainline crosses 11 major rivers, and a total of 2,230 large and small bridges were built on it. The highway passes through more than 200 railway stations and sidings, more than 60 cities and towns. Passing through remote mountainous areas, BAM has become an excellent school for many engineers and builders - here, for the first time in domestic and world practice, dozens of new, unique engineering solutions were applied, which were then used and are actively used on many other construction sites in our country.
From Taishet to Ust-Kut (Osetrovo, Lena station) the Baikal-Amur Mainline is double-track and electrified with alternating current; from Ust-Kut to Taksimo station the road is single-track and electrified with alternating current; to the east, single-track traffic is carried out with diesel traction.
The peak of cargo transportation along the BAM occurred in 1990. Then, in the period from 1991 to 1997, freight traffic along the highway fell almost by half. Like so many things built in our country, BAM in that period, in the mouths of many, suddenly became “the useless construction site of the century.” Indeed, the Baikal-Amur Mainline was designed in many ways as an integral part of a complex project for the development of significant natural resources of the regions through which the road ran - the development of the regions stopped, many of the planned projects of territorial-industrial complexes were never implemented. Naturally, without the development and development of the surrounding territories, the profitability of such a colossal and costly highway as the BAM is impossible.
At the same time, in the period from 1997 to 2010 (and especially after 2003, after the opening of through traffic through the Severomuysky tunnel), freight traffic along the BAM increased again, currently amounts to 12 million tons per year and continues to increase, gradually approaching the design load . An ever-increasing flow from the overloaded Trans-Siberian Railway is being redirected to the BAM (oil, coal, timber, and a number of other goods are transported along the line), from BAM the construction of the Amur-Yakut Mainline (AYM) continues, which in the foreseeable future, I want to believe (and especially - to participate in! ) will cross the Lena River on a colossal bridge; Work continues to modernize existing sections of the highway. I would like to believe that over time the development and development of the colossal territories lying in the gravitational zone of the BAM and AYAM will continue.
But even now life on this second long thread, which arose several decades ago and runs from west to east of our huge country several hundred kilometers north of the Trans-Siberian Railway, is quite active, as I was convinced of during my stay in Severobaikalsk.
We are driving along the BAM along the coast of Northern Baikal.
In some sections the railway dives under the cover of galleries, in others it passes through Cape Tunnels.
Monument to the builders of BAM:
Portal of the third Cape tunnel of the BAM:
Severobaykalsk station The Baikal-Amur Mainline - there are dozens of trains on dozens of tracks, passenger trains at the platform, locomotive whistles are heard every minute, the voice of the dispatcher does not stop from the loudspeakers.
Modern domestic electric locomotives “Ermak” operate on the electrified section of the BAM, and the Tynda-Moscow train departs from the platform.
On the outskirts of Severobaikalsk I again go out to the BAM. Here it leaves Severobaikalsk and the shore of Lake Baikal, and goes up into the mountains along the valley of the Tyya River, so that, after overcoming the mountain range through the 6-kilometer Baikal tunnel, 343 kilometers from here it reaches the shore of the upper Lena in Osetrovo, where the famous Lena station is located, one of the key points for BAM, Yakutia and the Irkutsk region.
So, the BAM line goes from Lake Baikal to the mountains. Lena station is 343 kilometers away.
And again the station - a steam locomotive on a pedestal and a complex of buildings of the East Siberian Railway.
Monument to Leningraders - builders of Severobaikalsk.
Schedule of passenger trains to the west and east:
Electric locomotive "Ermak" at Severobaykalsk station:
Tomorrow I’m leaving these places, so I finally took another walk around the station and “breathed” the life of BAM. The Severobaykalsk-Novaya Chara passenger train is preparing to depart.
Train with dump trucks.
Cargo and special equipment:
I went into Severobaikalsk City Museum of the Baikal-Amur Mainline. The museum is quite small and contains interesting materials related to the construction of the famous railway and Severobaikalsk, as well as photographs of those years.
Watching the life of the BAM... A passenger train travels along the BAM from east to west and approaches Severobaikalsk:
Following the passenger train in the same direction is a long freight train driven by the Ermak electric locomotive:
Having missed two oncoming trains, a long loaded train set off from Severobaikalsk east along the BAM - the same one with the fire truck that I photographed at the station.
Tomorrow early in the morning I am leaving these places, at 8 am setting off on a long 12-hour, 600-kilometer journey on the Comet along the route Severobaikalsk - Irkutsk, across the entire Baikal from north to south. But having already collected my things in the evening, I decided for the night to take another walk to the station - to say goodbye to BAM, or rather not to say goodbye, but to say “Goodbye,” since the idea of making a trip along this railway from Taishet to Sakhalin.
Well, BAM lives its usual life - the night station, brightly illuminated by spotlights, looks fascinating in the night, the beeps of locomotives sound mysteriously in the silence of the night, the voice of the dispatcher echoes repeatedly, the knock of wheels and the clang of interlocking cars preparing to set off on a long journey across, perhaps the most complex and unique railway in the world...
On April 13, 1932, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR issued a decree “On the construction of the Baikal-Amur Railway,” according to which design and survey work was launched and construction began.
The idea of creating the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM), the main Soviet construction project of the 1970s, appeared in the 19th century. Even then, local entrepreneurs justified the need to build a road with the prospect of developing mineral resources north of Baikal. In 1888, the Russian Technical Society discussed the project of building a Pacific railway through the northern tip of Lake Baikal, after which in July - September 1889, Colonel of the General Staff N.A. Voloshinov with a small detachment covered a thousand-kilometer space from Ust-Kut to Mui - just along to the places where the BAM route now lies. He came to the conclusion: “...drawing a line in this direction turns out to be absolutely impossible due to some technical difficulties, not to mention other considerations.” Voloshinov was not a pessimist, but he soberly realized: Russia at that time had neither the equipment nor the means to carry out grandiose work
At that moment, the government was not interested in the idea of building a road, but returned to it only in 1906-1907 - immediately after the Russo-Japanese War, which showed that the eastern borders of the empire were not as reliable as it seemed.
The fact that design and survey work on the northern branch of the Trans-Siberian Railway began precisely in 1907 indicates a trend that will be visible in the future: the state was preparing for serious investments in the BAM only when it concerned safety. The Trans-Siberian Railway passed too close to the border, and to conduct military operations in the east, the state needed a rokada - a railway running parallel to the supposed front line of a possible war and making it possible to transport and supply troops. In all subsequent years, the state will seriously return to road construction only in moments of tension on the eastern borders.
The first survey work on the future BAM stopped in 1914 with the outbreak of the First World War, in which Japan turned out to be an ally of Russia, and China was not an independent player. The new government returned to road construction only after almost 20 years. Although plans were put forward in the mid-1920s to build a road north of the Trans-Siberian Railway, they remained just an idea until the early 1930s. The impetus for the start of the process, most likely, was the conflict on the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER) - on the section of the Trans-Siberian Railway that passed through Chinese territory, which was then a Soviet-Chinese joint venture and along which, before the revolution, the bulk of traffic from Eastern Siberia went towards the Far East East.
In the summer of 1929, after the Nationalists came to power in China, Chinese troops captured the Chinese Eastern Railway and held it for six months. By this time, the CER itself was no longer the only extension of the Trans-Siberian Railway to the Pacific Ocean, but the conflict showed the potential danger on the Soviet-Chinese border, along which the main Trans-Siberian railway ran. Already in 1930, Dalkraik of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks sent proposals to the Central Committee and the Council of People's Commissars for the construction of a second Trans-Siberian road. This document mentions the name "Baikal-Amur Mainline" for the first time. It was proposed to start the road from Urusha station (approximately the middle of the current BAM in the Skovorodina area), and the final destination was planned to be Komsomolsk-on-Amur, which was then the village of Perm.
By 1932, Dalkraikom’s proposals had passed all levels, and in April the first resolution of the Council of People’s Commissars “On the construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline” appeared, which approved the plan for the construction of the BAM and the route proposed by Dalkraikom. The People's Commissariat of Railways was ordered to ensure "an immediate start to all preparatory work for the construction of the BAM." Construction, according to the decree, was planned to be completed in three years: through traffic along the entire highway in working operation mode was to be opened by the end of 1935.
But almost at the very beginning of construction, it became clear that its deadlines, like many other projects under Stalin’s five-year plans, were too optimistic and it would not be possible to complete the highway on time. The main problem was the lack of labor: with the officially established contingent of workers at the construction site being 25-26 thousand people, by the start of construction in 1932 it was possible to attract only 2.5 thousand people. Moreover, the first head of BAM construction, Sergei Mrachkovsky, considered even the established contingent to be underestimated by three times. Given the difficulties with the delivery of building materials and equipment, by the end of 1932, the project had what were then called “huge breakthroughs”; financing for construction had almost ceased by the fourth quarter, and its curtailment was already being discussed.
The decision was usual for that time: in October 1932, when it became finally clear that the plan for recruiting free workers could not be fulfilled, the construction was transferred from the responsibility of the People's Commissariat for Railways (NKPS) to the OGPU, which at that moment was completing the construction of the Belomorskoe in record time -Baltic Canal. The number of prisoners in the OGPU camps grew every year, the construction of the White Sea Canal ended in 1933, so the problem with the labor force at BAM was solved: by 1934, about a quarter of the more than 500 thousand prisoners were occupied in the structure of the Baikal-Amur camp (BAMLAG). who served sentences in OGPU camps. The most famous of the BAMLAG prisoners were the philosopher Pavel Florensky and the future Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky.
The issue of labor was removed, but the original plans still had to be changed by 1934: the territory of the future route turned out to be poorly studied, and a significant part of the workforce was prematurely assigned to the construction of the second Trans-Siberian tracks. For the time being, it was decided to carry out work on the construction of a new highway only on the connecting section from the BAM station on the Trans-Siberian Railway (in the Skovorodina area) to Tynda. But it was opened very late - only in October 1937. In the same year, after the outbreak of a full-scale Japanese-Chinese war in northern China, the Soviet government adopted a second resolution on the construction of the BAM, approving the modern route of the highway from Taishet through Ust-Kut, Nizhneangarsk, Tynda, Urgal, Komsomolsk-on-Amur with exit to the port of Sovetskaya Gavan.
The total length of the route has increased from the originally proposed 1.65-2 thousand km to 4 thousand km or more. To design the BAM, according to this decree, a special design institute "BAMtransproekt" was created for the first time (since 1939 it was renamed "BAMproekt"). In 1937, work began on the construction of the second connecting part with the Trans-Siberian Railway - the Izvestkovaya-Urgal line. In 1938, after the first open conflict between the Red Army and Japanese troops on Lake Khasan, another resolution of the Council of People's Commissars followed, which approved a new date for putting the highway into operation - 1945.
The Great Patriotic War that broke out in 1941 confused all plans for the construction of the highway. Two months before the start of the war with Germany, in April, the USSR and Japan concluded a non-aggression pact. The Japanese military industry began to prepare for a naval war with the United States, and the likelihood of a large-scale war in the Far East, and with it the strategic need for the construction of the BAM, decreased significantly. On the contrary, in the European part of the country, with the outbreak of the war with Germany, the situation worsened every day, and under these conditions, the NKPS used the materials of the BAM as a reserve. Rails and railway equipment were used in the restoration of destroyed sections of railways on the southern sections of the front, for example, during the construction of a rock supply road along the western bank of the Volga near Stalingrad - the Trans-Volga Mainline, and during the construction of railway sections of a transport corridor for organizing supplies to the allies under Lend-Lease through Iran.
As a result, almost all of the built BAM lines virtually ceased to exist. In 1941, the BAM-Tynda line, introduced back in 1937, was dismantled, the construction of the Urgal-Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Taishet-Padun and Komsomolsk-Sovetskaya Gavan sections was mothballed. The Izvestkovaya-Urgal line was tentatively put into operation in 1942, but a year later it was also dismantled. Rail traffic on already constructed sections with a total length of approximately 400 km was discontinued.
Nevertheless, even during the war, the BAM remained a priority project for the Soviet leadership. As soon as the situation at the front began to improve, in 1943 the State Defense Committee of the USSR resumed the accelerated construction of the Komsomolsk-Sovetskaya Gavan line, at that time the most important line in the event of war with Japan. With the help of American supplies of railway equipment under Lend-Lease, the line went into operation in July 1945 (a month before the USSR declared war on Japan). Construction continued immediately after the war. Work resumed on the western section of the BAM, in 1947 the Taishet-Bratsk line was opened, and in 1951 it was brought to the Lena station (city of Ust-Kut), essentially forming the current western section of the route. True, the full commissioning of the site occurred only seven years later - in 1958. The lines were necessary to ensure the operation of large construction projects - the Ust-Ilimsk hydroelectric power station, the Bratsk and Ust-Ilimsk forestry complex.
But these lines were the last to be introduced before the start of new construction during the Brezhnev period. There was no longer a real threat to the Soviet borders in the east: with the communists coming to power in China, Soviet-Chinese relations seemed to forever become exclusively friendly, and Japan no longer existed as a military entity in the region after defeat in the war. In addition, the new leadership that came to power, headed by Nikita Khrushchev, proposed new large-scale projects in other regions, in particular the development of virgin lands.
And since the late 1950s, another one was added to the already known construction problems - difficulties in attracting labor, permafrost and difficult terrain. At the end of the 1950s, high seismic activity was recorded on the BAM route: seven earthquakes with a magnitude of 7 to 10 occurred in the area of the main line. In 1957, on the northern spurs of the Udokan ridge, the most significant earthquake on the territory of the USSR since 1911, the Muya earthquake with a magnitude of 10-11, occurred, which caused the formation of a system of cracks and faults with a length of about 300 km, a shift in river channels, and the collapse of mountain slopes. In 1961, the Institute of the Earth's Crust of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences began seismological research along the BAM route, which took several years.
Until the end of the 1960s, only minor work continued at BAM - embankments were filled and rocks were cut to the west of Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Throughout the 1950s and 60s, the constructed section of the main highway and the Izvestkovaya-Urgal connecting line were used as a logging road. Construction on the BAM was almost completely suspended until the mid-1970s.
The state decided to return to the topic of BAM only in the 1960s. As before, the impetus for the resumption of investment and the start of new design work was geopolitical considerations. Since the late 1950s, relations between the USSR and China began to deteriorate; the Chinese leadership insisted on revising the border with the Soviet Union. By the second half of the 1960s, it became clear that an armed conflict on the Soviet-Chinese border was quite real, and it could be quite large-scale: a force of 658 thousand Soviet and 814 thousand Chinese soldiers were stationed along the 4,380 km of the Soviet-Chinese border. In 1969, these assumptions were confirmed - the first open border conflict occurred between the USSR and China on the disputed Damansky Island, where 300 Chinese soldiers landed. Fortunately, the conflict did not escalate into full-scale hostilities, but clashes between Soviet border guards and Chinese troops continued after that.
Of course, military-strategic considerations were not the only reason for starting new work at BAM. Soviet economists considered the construction of the railway as the main element of the comprehensive development of the productive forces of the Irkutsk region, Buryatia, Transbaikalia, Yakutia, the Amur region and the Khabarovsk Territory. The route passed the largest undeveloped deposits located in these regions, including the Udokan copper deposit, the largest oil and gas deposits (Chayandinskoe and Verkhnechonskoe) and coal (Neryungrinskoe and Elginskoe) deposits of Yakutia, polymetallic (Chineiskoe) and uranium (Kholodnenskoe) deposits of Buryatia and the Chita region .
Economists justified the need to create nine territorial production complexes (TPC) in the BAM zone. In addition, high oil prices stimulated government investment in the 1970s, and traffic volumes on the Trans-Siberian Railway increased significantly, raising concerns among the country's leaders that the main road's capacity would be insufficient for the foreseeable future. In the future, the task was to continue the BAM north to Yakutsk, then to Magadan, Chukotka and Kamchatka.
In 1967, a decree was issued by the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR on the resumption of design and survey work at the BAM, which was entrusted to the Mosgiprotrans, Lengiprotrans and Sibgiprotrans institutes. Design work, in fact, had to be carried out anew - both due to clarification in comparison with the 1930s of the natural conditions along the route route (including increased seismic hazard), and due to changes in the technical conditions of operation of the route, on which instead of The previously planned steam locomotive traction was now supposed to be organized by diesel and electric locomotive traction. By this time, only the westernmost section of the Taishet-Lena highway was electrified.
The first work on the new construction began before 1974, from which it is customary to count the history of modern BAM. The first construction division of the highway, the BAMstroyput department at the Skovorodino station, was created in November 1971, and construction itself began in 1972. In April, the first cubic meters of soil were poured on the BAM-Tyndinsky section, and in September the first link was laid at the zero kilometer of the line.
In March 1974, at a speech in Alma-Ata, General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Leonid Brezhnev for the first time called BAM “the most important construction project of the ninth five-year plan.” Four months later, on July 8, Resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR N 561 “On the construction of the Baikal-Amur Railway” appeared, which is now considered the official start of construction. The construction of the highway was expected to be completed within ten years. The plan envisaged the construction of a 3,145 km long highway from Ust-Kut (Lena station) to Komsomolsk-on-Amur, the laying of a second track 680 km long on the already built Taishet-Lena section and a single-track 400-kilometer railway BAM-Tynda-Berkakit - a total of 4,225 km of tracks.
At the end of July 1974, Pravda published an article “From Baikal to Amur” on the front page, which launched a mass propaganda campaign that lasted until the end of construction. True, very little was written about the initial stage of construction of the BAM in the 1930s in numerous books, brochures and newspaper articles that were published in multi-million copies. By this time, the state preferred not to tell the real story of even relatively successful projects, like the White Sea Canal. And about the sections of the BAM that were built and dismantled during the war, for example, in the Soviet encyclopedic dictionary of the 1980s, there was nothing at all - the start date of construction was 1974, and only casually mentioned two sections built “in the late 1940s - early 1950s."
As in the 1930s, during the years of the second construction of the BAM, the state was faced with the task of providing labor for the construction site, and a relatively cheap one at that. This problem had to be solved in other ways. Even before the July resolution of the Central Committee, at the XVII Komsomol Congress in April, BAM was declared an all-Union Komsomol construction site. Right at the congress, the first Komsomol detachment was formed and set off for the highway. By the summer of 1974, 2 thousand Komsomol members were already working at BAM. The share of those who arrived at the construction site “by public call” in the first year was 47.7% of the total number of employees, and in certain departments - up to 80%. In addition to volunteers, university graduates who came to BAM on assignment also worked at the construction site.
The second driving force was the railway troops - the same Komsomol members, but those who ended up at the construction site no longer voluntarily. The first military construction units arrived at BAM in August 1974. The republics of the USSR took the patronage of the construction of the BAM infrastructure - the Urgal station was built by Ukraine, Muyakan - Belarus, Uoyan - Lithuania, Kichera - Estonia, Tayura - Armenia, Ulkan - Azerbaijan, Soloni - Tajikistan, Alonka - Moldova, Tynda was built under the patronage of Moscow. At the same time, construction was carried out “at the exit” - in the ports of Vanino and Sovetskaya Gavan.
Komsomol members and military men built the road almost as quickly as the prisoners. In 1979, the Komsomolsk-Berezovka section was completed, which closed the eastern ring of the BAM (Izvestkovaya-Urgal-Komsomolsk-Volochaevka). By 1981, when the main line in the MPS system officially became the independent Baikal-Amur Railway with management in Tynda, the operational length of the new road tracks was more than 1.6 thousand km. On the western section, the Lena-Nizhneangarsk line was put into operation in the same year. In 1982, train traffic from Tynda to Verkhnezeisk station was opened on the eastern section of the BAM, and in November of the same year the 300-kilometer Urgal-Postyshevo section was put into permanent operation.
The joining of the western and eastern sections of the tracks took place in September 1984, and on October 1, the ceremonial laying of the “golden” links of the BAM took place at the Kuenga station in the Chita region. For another five years, work continued to complete the construction of the BAM infrastructure and auxiliary branches. In 1989, an act of acceptance of the line was signed, and through train traffic began on it. But the final work on the construction of the BAM was completed only 14 years later, when in 2003 the fifth largest in the world, the 15-kilometer Severomuysky Tunnel, opened, preparatory work for which began in 1976. Until the tunnel was completed, trains had to take a 64-kilometer detour.
It is not only possible, but also necessary to be proud of the glory of your ancestors; don't respect her
shameful indifference.
A.S. Pushkin
THIS IS HOW BAM STARTED.
From Tsarist Russia, the USSR inherited the railway from Moscow to Vladivostok. The highway was built with funds from the treasury. In the USSR, its name became firmly established as the “Trans-Siberian Railway” (Transsib). In the Russian Empire it had a different name: “The Great Siberian Route”. Its length of 9288.2 kilometers is the longest railway in the world.
In 1930, Far Eastern regional organizations developed and sent to the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR a proposal for the design and construction of a second railway in Eastern Siberia and the Far East with access to the Pacific Ocean. It was proposed to lay the route from one of the stations, west of Baikal, through the northern tip of the lake towards Sovetskaya Gavan. In this document, which took into account the preliminary developments of both Irkutsk and Khabarovsk designers, the future railway was for the first time called the Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM).
In 1932, the BAM was considered to be the route from the Urusha railway station to the Trans-Baikal railway. d. - winter quarters Tynda - village. Perm (12/10/32 transformed into the city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur) with a length of about 2000 kilometers. There was no final version of the railway route. Therefore, the length of the road was determined differently in different sources: from 1725 to 4000 km.
Design and survey work began at an accelerated pace.
Expeditions led by P.K. Tatarintsev, D.I. Dzhusem, A.P. Smirnov, began research on this 1000-kilometer section.
In 1933, at the BAM station (a small siding near the settlement of Skovorodino, built in 1932), the first meters of rails were laid in a northern direction towards the village of Tyndinsky.
In 1937, a decision was made to build a highway from Taishet to Sovetskaya Gavan. Laying of the track on the meridional lines began, which were supposed to connect the BAM with the Trans-Siberian Railway.
In 1940, train traffic was opened on the Izvestkovaya – Urgal section.
In 1941, with the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, the already laid tracks were dismantled and used for the construction of a railway along the Volga.
In 1943 - 1945, the Komsomolsk-on-Amur – Sovetskaya Gavan railway was built.
In 1950 - 1959, the Taishet – Lena (Ust-Kut) road was built, which stimulated the intensive development of the area’s natural resources (energy, timber, iron ore, etc.). By the early 1960s, more than 1,150 of the 4,000 kilometers of the BAM route had been put into operation. The second meridional connection of the BAM with the Trans-Siberian Railway - the Izvestkovaya - Urgal highway - has come into operation. In 1973, the Vostochny port began operating in Wrangel Bay (Vanino), which became the “sea gate” of the BAM.
BAMA PIONEERS.
1974 is considered the year of the second birth of BAM: active construction of the highway began in many directions at once by Komsomol construction “landing forces” and units of the USSR Railway Troops. In 1972 - 1977, the BAM-Tynda road, dismantled in 1941, was restored - the third meridional connection of the BAM with the Trans-Siberian Railway. In 1976, the development of coking coals in southern Yakutia began; the first high-speed shipping line to Lake Baikal was opened, which connected the Trans-Siberian Railway with the city of Severobaikalsk, which was being built on the BAM. In 1979, construction of the eastern section of the BAM from Urgal to Komsomolsk-on-Amur was completed. In 1980 - 1981, the most important object of the BAM was built - a bridge across the river Vitim, one of the most difficult on the route. By January 1, 1983, more than 400 million cubic meters of earthworks had been completed during the construction of the BAM. 3,400 highway roads, 1,400 bridges and 1,800 culverts were built, and 2,260 km of main railway tracks were laid.
In January 1984, the first train formed in Tynda arrived in Moscow at the Yaroslavl station exactly on schedule.
On October 27, 1984, the so-called "golden link" connecting the route all the way from Taishet to Vanino.
BAM DAN. FIRST TRAINS.
In 1988, permanent traffic began at BAM (commissioning).
The construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline is on a par with such large-scale projects - (“constructions of socialism”), such as the construction of the Turkestan-Siberian Mainline (abbreviated Turksib, and the White Sea-Baltic Canal, the development of virgin lands in the 50s, the construction of the Sayano-Shushenskaya and Bratsk hydroelectric power station in the 60s, etc.
The Baikal-Amur Mainline passes through Eastern Siberia and the Far East, connecting Novokuznetsk with the Pacific Ocean. It crosses the Irkutsk and Amur regions, Buryatia, the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), the Trans-Baikal Territory and the Khabarovsk Territory
BAM is the last of the “great construction projects of socialism.” This was one of the most controversial and paradoxical projects implemented in Soviet times. The railway, approximately 4,500 km long, was laid in one of the most difficult regions of the world to build, geologically and climatically. The route crosses eleven deep rivers and seven mountain ranges. More than 1000 km of the route were laid in areas of permafrost and high seismicity. Ten tunnels were made along the route, including the Severomuysky Tunnel, 2,230 bridges and more than 200 railway stations and sidings were built.
BAM became the most expensive infrastructure project in the history of the USSR: its final cost was 17.7 billion rubles in 1991 prices, which was four times higher than the original estimate, and not all sections were put into operation. The construction of branches and modernization of the main course of the highway continues to this day.
Active construction of the BAM lasted about 15 years. Hundreds of thousands of builders from the USSR and other countries of the socialist camp (Poland, Bulgaria, East Germany) took part in it. The construction process subsequently received just as mixed reviews as its design.
A landmark event during construction was the “golden” docking at the Balbukhta crossing in the Kalarsky district of the Chita region (currently the Trans-Baikal Territory), which took place on September 29, 1984 at 10:05 Moscow time. The “golden” junction marked the meeting of the eastern and western segments of the highway, the meeting of two groups of builders who had been moving towards each other for 10 years. Later, a monument of glory dedicated to the builders of BAM was opened at this station.
By 1990, BAM reached its peak capacity.
By the early 1960s, more than 1,150 of the 4,000 kilometers of the BAM route had been put into operation. The second meridional connection of the BAM with the Trans-Siberian Railway has come into operation - the Izvestkovaya – Urgal route
In 1973, the Vostochny port began operating in Wrangel Bay (Vanino), which became the “sea gate” of the BAM.
Over the entire history of the construction of BAM, about 2 million people took part in it.
Between 1978 and 1990, 279 million tons of cargo were transported along the BAM, including 112.7 million tons of coal, 65.4 million tons of timber; 33 million passengers.
Since the late 80s, workers began to leave BAM. In the 90s, the exodus became widespread, everyone who had somewhere to go left. At BAM there are problems with the supply of consumer goods, prices and unemployment are rising. In 1997, BAM's freight capacity was limited to several trains per day. Since 1990, the population in the “BAM region” has decreased by approximately 30%.
Severomuysky tunnel
The Severomuysky tunnel on the Baikal-Amur Mainline is the longest tunnel in Russia and the fifth longest in the world. Its length is 15 km 343 m. According to the construction conditions, the tunnel has no analogues: permafrost, abundance of groundwater, scree, landslides, tectonic faults.
April 27, 2009 marked 35 years since the day when the first All-Union Komsomol shock detachment, a detachment named after the XVII Congress of the Komsomol, set off to build the Baikal-Amur Mainline. This day became the second birth of BAM - it marked the beginning of active construction of the highway in several directions at once.
Construction Features
Complex methods were used: along with the construction of railway lines, residential settlements, cultural centers, public service institutions were built, and industrial enterprises were created.
Brigades from all the union republics worked on the construction, as well as detachments from Bulgaria, Hungary, Mongolia, etc. The eastern section was built by railroad soldiers.
During the construction of the roadbed, crushed stone for the first layer of ballast was delivered to areas located near the quarries by dump trucks before laying the track.
Ballasting was carried out immediately after laying the rail and sleeper grid, which made it possible to preserve the roadbed, increase train speeds and ensure the safe passage of heavy cranes and platforms with construction materials.
BAM tunnels were excavated in difficult engineering and geological conditions. The lack of a correct forecast of geological conditions required advanced exploration drilling.
Difficulties in tunneling, which delayed the construction of the route, necessitated the construction of bypasses, which ensured traffic while the tunnels were being dug.
The builders of BAM found a way to preserve permafrost soils using thermal piles (liquid cooling systems). Their action is based on the natural convection of a coolant solution that conducts heat well. Many road structures stand on thermal piles - multi-storey buildings, bridges, locomotive depots.
One of the difficulties during the construction of the BAM was associated with significant seismic activity in the regions where the route passes. Thus, on June 27, 1957, in the area of the northern spurs of the Udokan ridge, the Muya earthquake with a magnitude of 10–11 occurred, during which a system of cracks and faults with a total length of about 300 kilometers formed on the earth’s surface. Here river beds were shifted, new lakes appeared, and mountain slopes collapsed in places. This is the largest earthquake recorded in the former USSR.
Trunk meaning
Normalizing the operation of the highway along its entire length creates the basis for:
1. Large-scale economic development of the Far East and North of Russia;
2.Creating strong ties with the countries of the East (Japan, China, Korea);
3. Economic development of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands.
BAM today
Currently, 8 trains pass along the BAM every day; transportation volumes amount to 8 million tons of cargo per year.
On December 4, 2003, the largest in Russia and the fifth longest on the planet, the North-Muysky railway tunnel with a length of 15 kilometers 343 meters was opened at BAM.
By 2015, it is planned to build 8 sidings, 2 low-power slides and 18 additional tracks at BAM; reconstruction of the Korshunovsky tunnel is also planned.
By 2015, freight traffic along BAMU is expected to increase by 2-2.5 times.
In April 1974, BAM was declared an all-Union shock Komsomol construction site, and masses of young people were sent here for internships.
During the ten years of construction of the BAM highway, a colossal amount of work was done; almost every year became a new milestone, a new frontier in mastering the difficulties of the northern road.
In January 1981 A new, then 32nd, railway began to operate - the Baikal-Amur. It included three operational departments - Tyndinsky, Urgalsky and Severobaikalsky, as well as the Directorate for the construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline. At that time, 17.5 thousand railway workers of various professions worked on the road.
Over the years of construction of the highway, the words “The Baikal-Amur Mainline is being built by the whole country” have become familiar. Behind these words there are facts, the heroic work of the Soviet people.
Hundreds of industrial enterprises located in all regions of the country supplied various machines, structures, and materials to BAM. The workers of the cities of Ivanovo, Kalinin, Voronezh, Donetsk, Kostroma sent excavators, Chelyabinsk - bulldozers, Moscow, Kremenchug, Minsk - trucks, Leningrad - powerful Kirovets tractors, Kamyshin, Odessa, Kaliningrad, Kirov, Balashikha - load-lifting cranes; structures for artificial structures arrived from Voronezh and Ulan-Ude, rails - from the Kuznetsk Metallurgical Plant.
Stations and villages on the BAM route were built by representatives of all union republics, many regions and cities of Russia.
Such a large-scale construction was only possible for a great power, with its colossal economic power and resources. 60 sectors of the national economy, hundreds of supplier enterprises, design and scientific organizations in Leningrad and Chelyabinsk, Novosibirsk and Rostov, Nikopol and Blagoveshchensk participated in providing the construction with everything necessary. BAM is rightly called the route of friendship and brotherhood. It was built by representatives of 70 nationalities of the USSR. A General Scheme for the regional planning of the BAM zone of influence was developed, taking into account the regional characteristics of the route, specific factors of the economic development of the adjacent territories, as well as the multinational features of architectural and planning solutions, the construction art of all the republics participating in the development of the highway. Tynda, Neryungri, Severobaikalsk - the largest cities along the route - were built precisely according to the master plans.
As a result, each had its own appearance, its own special architectural “accents”. However, like any new business, the Baikal-Amur Mainline aroused interest in environmental problems. Virgin nature demanded careful treatment. After all, a delicate natural organism, balanced over thousands of years, is especially fragile in conditions of permafrost, high seismicity and low temperatures.
Here, for the first time in world practice, a fundamentally new design of bridge support foundations was created, a number of new ideas were implemented in tunnel construction, technologies for backfilling the roadbed and drilling and blasting operations in permafrost conditions were developed, and modern methods of combating ice deposits appeared.
The highway passed through the region in northern areas rich in natural resources. The Baikal-Amur Mainline serves the purpose of developing all natural resources. Where previously only a nomadic Evenk hunter could reach on his reindeer, where geologists only occasionally flew in by helicopter, the taiga was awakened by the whistle of a diesel locomotive, and residential settlements sprang up. Previously, the southern regions of the Amur region were connected to the North by the AYAM (Amur-Yakutsk Mainline) highway, running from Bolshoi Never on the Trans-Siberian Railway to Chulman. And this thin transport stream was replaced by a “full-flowing river” called BAM
The Baikal-Amur Mainline is one of the largest railway lines in the world. The construction of the main part of the railway, which took place in difficult geological and climatic conditions, took more than 12 years, and one of the most difficult sections - the North Muisky tunnel - was put into permanent operation only in 2003.
The Severomuysky ridge was one of the most difficult sections of the BAM. Before the opening of the Severomuysky tunnel, trains followed a bypass railway line laid through the ridge. The first version of the bypass, 24.6 km long, was built in 1982 - 1983; during its construction, slopes of up to 40 thousandths were allowed (that is, up to 40 meters of rise per kilometer of distance). Because of this, only freight trains of several cars could travel through this line; the movement of passenger trains was prohibited (people were transported across the pass by buses)
In 1985 - 1989, a new bypass line, 54 km long, was built, consisting of numerous steep serpentines, high viaducts and two loop tunnels (the old bypass was subsequently dismantled). The “Devil's Bridge” became famous - a viaduct in a sharp turn on a slope across the valley of the Itykyt River, standing on two-tier supports. The train was forced to maneuver between the hills, moving at a maximum speed of 20 km/h and risking getting caught in an avalanche. On ascents there was a need to push the trains with auxiliary locomotives. The section required large expenses for maintaining the track and ensuring traffic safety. Pictured is the Devil's Bridge
The construction of the tunnel through the ridge took more than 25 years. The first train passed through the tunnel on December 21, 2001, but the tunnel was accepted into permanent operation only on December 5, 2003. The total length of the tunnel's mine workings is 45 km; Along the entire length of the tunnel there is a working of a smaller diameter, used for pumping out water, placing engineering systems and delivering technical personnel. Ventilation is provided by three vertical shafts. The safety of trains passing through the tunnel is ensured, among other things, by seismic and radiation monitoring systems. To maintain the microclimate in the tunnel, special gates are installed on both of its portals, which are opened only for the passage of trains. The tunnel's engineering systems are controlled by a special automated system developed at the Design and Technology Institute of Computer Science of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
During the construction of the highway and highway roads, builders completed more than 570 million m3 over ten years. earthworks, laid about 4,200 bridges and pipes across rivers and watercourses, laid 5 thousand km of main and station tracks, built dozens of railway stations, erected residential buildings with a total area of over 570 thousand m2, opened new schools, hospitals, kindergartens and nursery
Workers from 60 sectors of the national economy, as well as 40 patronage organizations from all Union republics, took a direct part in this enormous work. Representatives of 70 nationalities and nationalities worked on the track.
The unique bridge crossings across the Amur River and across the Zeya Reservoir on the BAM were a significant event in the history of Soviet bridge construction. However, everything underwent thorough preliminary testing and full-scale testing.
Unfortunately, many well-founded warnings and advice from scientists and specialists were not taken into account during the construction and operation of the BAM, which later, in the conditions of the collapse of entire parts of the state economy in the 1990s. led to such a disastrous situation on the route on the eve of its disbandment.
Today, the Baikal-Amur Mainline is going through difficult times associated with structural restructuring in the Russian railway industry. The road was built to develop the productive forces of the Irkutsk region, Buryatia, Transbaikalia, Yakutia, Amur region and Khabarovsk Territory. And the road passed through the richest places with the aim of developing mineral deposits. For example, the Udokan copper deposit, containing 20% of all world copper reserves. But a 60-kilometer branch line to this field was not built. Thanks to BAM, it was planned to develop the iron ore deposits of southern Yakutia and create a metallurgical complex there; to develop neighboring deposits of coking coal, titanium, vanadium, as well as oil, coal, manganese and iron ores in the Dzhugdzhur-Ud region; develop the timber industry complex.
BAM had one more task (and no one canceled it) - this was the continuation of the construction of the railway to Yakutsk, then to Magadan, and then to Chukotka and Kamchatka. But at present, the construction of the BAM is frozen, the upper structure of the track is dying.
When you get acquainted with these latest projects, you involuntarily recall many historical analogues. Ideas and projects remained unrealized for various reasons. Perhaps these plans are not destined to come true.
1956, Osetrovsky river port on the Lena River, transshipment of goods for BAM
1949 prospector camp on the future route
Where are these Tyndenkas now? Their parents at that time were not tormented by the problems of supporting their families.
The Baikal-Amur Mainline, as an abbreviation, bears the abbreviation BAM, consisting of the initial letters of the words of the name of the road. Today it is the same railway laid through the territory of the Far East and across the expanses of the Eastern part of Siberia. Accordingly, the subordination of the constructed tracks occurs on a territorial basis; they are part of the Far Eastern Railway and the Eastern Railway.
BAM has a global significance and is considered one of the most significant and longest railway lines.
The first ideas for a grandiose construction project
At the end of the nineteenth century, in 1888, the Russian Technical Society showed interest in the possible construction of a railway in the easternmost regions of the Russian Empire. For discussion, specialists were offered one of the projects for laying railways from the Pacific Ocean, further along the northern tip of Lake Baikal. One year later, Colonel N.A. Voloshinov, being a representative of the General Staff, led a small detachment, covering a path equal to a thousand-kilometer segment, starting it in Ust-Kut, reaching the settlement of Mui. It was in these places that the BAM route was later laid. But then, based on the results of the expedition, a completely different conclusion was drawn. The main thread in the report was that in these places it is not possible to carry out the planned grandiose construction. One of the main reasons for this conclusion was the complete lack of proper technical support, which at that time did not yet exist in Russia at all.
Once again, the question of the possible construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline was raised a year after the end of hostilities in the Russian-Japanese War, that is, in 1906. At that time, there was still in the air a proposal to create a second branch of the Trans-Siberian Railway. However, they limited themselves to carrying out survey work only. With the onset of 1924, talk about the start of construction of the mentioned highway stopped completely.
Briefly about the history of BAM
For the first time, in 1930, but still in the project, the name of the railway appears as the “Baikal-Amur Mainline”. Three years later, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR made such an important decision to begin construction of the BAM tracks, although in reality only design and survey work was carried out for another four long years.
With the onset of 1937, construction began on the creation of railway tracks from the station point - Sovetskaya Gavan and to the station point - Taishet. The first point is the eastern border of our country, and the station is located right at the fork in the roads of the Trans-Siberian Railway and the future BAM.
The construction of the main route Sovetskaya Gavan - Taishet was carried out with long interruptions in the time period, from 1938 to 1984. The most difficult section is called the North Muisky tunnel, its length is 15,343 meters. Continuous operation of this part of the road began in 2003. The project according to which the tracks were created dates back to 1928.
The volume of freight traffic at the end of 2014 amounted to twelve million tons.
Today, the BAM route is undergoing modernization in order to increase the annual freight flow; it is planned to increase this figure to fifty million tons of annual turnover.
Where is the highway?
The length of the main railway route from Sovetskaya Gavan to Taishet is 4287 kilometers. To the south of this path lies the Trans-Siberian railway. The BAM railway tracks cross the river beds: the Amur near the city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur, the Lena near the city of Ust-Kut and the Angara near the city of Bratsk, and in total the route crosses eleven river channels via bridge crossings. The paths ran through the most beautiful places on the northern shore of Lake Baikal. The Bamovskaya route has a number of branches: a road of one hundred and twenty kilometers is stretched to the station point of the Black Cape. It is there that a tunnel leading to Sakhalin Island would appear. Now this construction site is in an abandoned state.
A railway line with a length of three hundred and fifty-one kilometers has been laid in the direction of the Volochaevka station. The length of the branch to the Elga field area is three hundred kilometers. The length of the line to Izvestkovaya station is three hundred twenty-six kilometers. A sixteen-kilometer-long path has been laid to the Chegdomyn station point. The tracks of the Amur-Yakutsk highway ran towards the city of Yakutsk. In the direction of the Bamovsky station, the length of the tracks was one hundred and seventy-nine kilometers. Sixty-six kilometers long roads have been laid to the Chineyskoye field. The branch towards Ust-Ilimsk is two hundred and fifteen kilometers long.
Almost the entire route of the Baikal-Amur highway is laid through mountainous terrain. The highest point of the highway is located at the Mururinsky Pass, its height is one thousand three hundred twenty-three meters above sea level. A difficult path passes through the Stanovoi Upland. The BAM is replete with steep slopes; on some of these sections of the main line, restrictions are introduced on the weight parameters of trains, and double locomotive traction is used. Ten tunnel structures had to be built on this road. The North-Muysky Baikal tunnel is considered the longest on Russian territory. Along the entire route, two thousand two hundred and thirty small and large bridge crossings were created. There are more than sixty villages and cities, more than two hundred sidings and station points on the highway.
Along the entire route: Taishet - Ust-Kut, the railway is electrified with alternating current and has a double-track format. Further along the Ust-Kut route, the road has a single-track electrified format.
On the easternmost section of the tracks, movement is carried out using diesel traction from locomotives.
Hydroports
The western section of the BAM route was equipped with a whole chain of hydroports. They were on the rivers: on Selimdzha, near the village of Norsky, on Vitim, near the village of Nelyaty, on the Angara, near the village of Bratskoye, on the Upper Angara, near Nizhneangarsk and on Lake Irkane.
History of construction
Stalin period
The direction of the entire Bamovskaya route was adopted in 1937; it was supposed to run along the following route: Sovetskaya Gavan - Komsomolsk-on-Amur - Ust-Niman, Tynda - the northern shore of Lake Baikal - Bratsk - Taishet.
The site, located between Nizhneangarsk and Tynda, was included in the project when aerial photography of the specified area was carried out.
In the May days of 1938, Bamlag was disbanded. Instead, six labor camps were formed to support construction on the railway. In the same year, construction of the railway began on the western section, between Taishet and Bratsk. Preparatory work has begun on the track section from Sovetskaya Gavan to Komsomolsk-on-Amur.
During the hard times of war, in January 1942, the State Defense Committee made a decision to dismantle bridge trusses and track links on the Tynda-BAM section and transfer them to a section of railway tracks along the route: Ulyanovsk - Syzran - Saratov - Stalingrad to create the Volga Rockade.
With the onset of June 1947, construction work resumed on the section of the railway between Urgal and Komsomolsk-on-Amur; it was carried out by prisoners from the Amur ITL. Over the next six years, the embankments were completely filled along the entire section from Berezovoye to Komsomolsk-2. Subsequently, the mentioned part of the road was operated by railway transport, which was part of the Komsomolsk United Economy. The depot and management building are located on the village territory of Khurmuli, located in the Komsomolsky district. Part of the road from Sovetskaya Gavan to Komsomolsk-on-Amur began operation back in 1945. In July 1951, the first train was launched along the route from Taishet to Bratsk and further to Ust-Kut. Permanent operation of this site began in 1958.
Application of aerial photography
An interesting fact is that when carrying out survey work, not only ground reconnaissance was used, but in difficult and impassable places, aerial photography, which was very complex at that time, was carried out, which was then considered an avant-garde direction. Aerial photography became possible with the participation of pilot Mikhail Kirillov, who later became a hero of the Soviet Union.
At the Moscow Aerogeodetic Trust, experts confirmed that aerial photographs are accurate and have a certain value, and can be used where they are needed. Railway specialists can perform such work. One of the first railway pilots was L.G. Krause. Before carrying out these geodetic works, the named pilot worked on the route: Moscow - Leningrad, delivering the central newspaper "Pravda" to the city on the Neva. Beginning in the summer months of 1936, pilot L.G. Krause actively traced the BAM. The length of the entire reconnaissance was equal to three thousand four hundred eighty kilometers, and the total area of aerial photography was equal to seven thousand five hundred square kilometers.
The first attempts at aerial photography were unsuccessful. Because the type of aircraft used did not have proper stability on the course of a given route, and therefore the frames turned out blurry. Other aircraft were used to carry out subsequent aerial photography work. It was the MP-1-bis aircraft type, which belongs to the group of seaplanes. They were based in the Irkutsk hydroport, where there were special hangars for the winter period and had its own base for carrying out the necessary repairs.
Brezhnev period
Nine years later, survey work was again required, and already in July 1974, the creation of new railway branches began, it was about the construction of a second track along the following routes: Berkakit - Tynda and further to BAM, and from Ust-Kut to Taishet. In total, this is one thousand seventy-seven kilometers of railways. At the same time, a railway belonging to the first category is being created along the route from Komsomolsk-on-Amur to Ust-Kut, the length of these tracks is three thousand one hundred and forty-five kilometers.
The geography of the new terminals and stations built along the entire length of the line of the road being created is also interesting. Ukrainian builders built a station building in Novy Urgal. Azerbaijani builders created the station points of Ulkan and Angoy, the walls of Severobaikalsk were erected by Leningraders, and Tynda was built by Muscovites. The Bashkirs were rebuilding in Verkhnezeisk. Dagestanis, Ingush and Chechens worked to create Kunerma. Krasnodar and Stavropol residents distinguished themselves in the creation of the Lena station. Khabarovsk residents built Suduk. Krasnoyarsk residents carried out the construction of Fevralsk. The residents of Tul created the Marevaya station, the Rostov residents built Kirenga. Chelyabinsk residents - Yuktali. Permians - Dugabud, Sverdlovsk - Khorogoch and Kuvyktu. Ulyanovsk residents built Izhak, Kuibyshev residents built Eterken, Saratov residents built Gerbi, Volgograd residents built Dzhamka, Penzen residents built Amgun. Novosibirsk residents created Postyshevo and Tungala. Tambov residents distinguished themselves during the construction of Khurumuli. Kichera was built by Estonians.
Since April 1974, BAM acquired the status of an “Impact Komsomol construction site.” This railway was built by many young people. Local jokes and new jokes related to the name of the road were then created here.
Since 1977, the road section on the Tynda-BAM line has been in operation on a permanent basis. Two years later, the Berkakit – Tynda line began operating. The main construction of railway tracks was carried out over a twelve-year period, starting from 04/05/1972 to 10/17/1984. Five years later, all three thousand kilometers of railway tracks were put into operation. On the eve of September 29, 1984, the brigades of Ivan Varshavsky and Alexander Bondar met in the Balbukhty crossing area, and three days later at the Kuanda station, the installation of the “golden” link took place in a solemn ceremony. The road was now a single mechanism with the longest tunnel in Russia, but its full operation began only in 2003.
Beginning in 1986, BAM received at its one-time disposal eight hundred units of various technical devices made in Japan to ensure further construction of the road.
At 1991 prices, the construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline cost our state 177 billion rubles, which indicates that it is the most expensive infrastructure project in the history of our country. The initial cost of the project was expected to be four times less than the already indicated price.
The implemented project provided that the Baikal-Amur Mainline would be an integral part of the entire complex of enterprises that would be involved in the development of those significant volumes of natural resources in the regions. The project envisaged the construction of nine giant complexes with industrial enterprises, but only one such association was created, called the South Yakut Coal Complex. The Neryungri coal mine was included in its composition.
A number of experts and specialists believe that without creating a massive development of already discovered and declared places with significant mineral reserves, the constructed road will be considered unprofitable. It is also noteworthy that all the discovered deposits in this region are located along the routes of the Baikal-Amur Mainline; their actual development has not yet begun. At the beginning of the 2000s, according to information from one of the high-ranking officials of Russian Railways, with the rank of vice president of the company, a statement was made about the gigantic size of annual losses. By that time they had reached an annual value of 5 billion rubles.
2000s
With the advent of the 2000s, a big leap was expected in the economy of this region. Such rosy forecasts were based on the development of private business. The Udokan copper deposit was to be developed by Alisher Usmanov with his Metalloinvest enterprise. The Chineyskoye field was given into the hands of Oleg Deripaska for his Basic Element enterprise. The development of the Elga coal deposit was to be carried out by the Mechel enterprise. All practical projects aimed at the development of the entire BAM were suspended indefinitely. The plans had to be adjusted due to the onset of the global economic crisis at the end of the 2000s. With the advent of 2011, certain improvements begin in the economy of the Russian Federation. Already in August, the Elga deposit produced its first black coal. At the same time, construction began on a new railway line towards the named mine.
Despite the growth in freight and passenger traffic by the end of 2009, the annual volume of freight turnover was only twelve million tons, and twelve million passengers were carried per year, the road was still considered unprofitable. In order for the situation to change, the volume of cargo and passenger transportation had to increase.
Modern BAM
Today the BAM has been divided, it has become part of the Far Eastern Railway and the Eastern Railway, the dividing line of the road is located in the area of the Khani station.
The construction of new branches of the BAM railway continues. Traffic has already begun along the route: Aldan - Tommota, there is already a road to the station point Nizhny Bestyakh and Amgi, we are talking about the length of the tracks being one hundred and five kilometers.
To date, new railway projects have already been created. To ensure road supply to the Ozernoye deposits for the extraction of polymetals and the Khiagdinskoye deposit for the development and transportation of uranium ores, three hundred and fifty kilometers long roads will be laid along the route: Mogzon - Ozernaya - Khiagda - Novy Uoyan. This road will connect the Trans-Siberian Railway and the BAM.
In the near foreseeable future, it is planned to resume construction of either a tunnel or bridge railway crossing to Sakhalin Island.
Since 2009, reconstruction work has been carried out on the railway section from Sovetskaya Gavan to Komsomolsk-on-Amur. The new Kuznetsovsky tunnel is scheduled to be launched at the end of 2016. Sixty billion rubles in total will be required to implement this project. The implementation of the planned work will significantly increase the speed limit of trains, as well as raise the weight standard of trains to a value equal to five thousand six hundred tons.
Road development plan
The strategic plan for the development of this road provides for a significant increase in the amount of allocations to the amount of 400000000000 rubles. These investments will make it possible to put into operation heavy trains. New railway tracks with a total length of seven thousand kilometers will appear. We are talking about routes: from the Elginskoye field to Ulak station, as well as from Fevralsk towards Gari and further to Shimanovskaya station. From Chyna to Novaya Chara, from Apsatskaya to Novaya Chara, from Olekminsk to Khanya and from Lensk to Nepa and further to Lena.
After completing a large volume of reconstruction work, the capacity of the Trans-Siberian Railway in the direction of the BAM will significantly increase. A number of experts propose to specialize the Trans-Siberian line to a greater extent in container and passenger transportation. It is expected that in the near future, BAM will be able to provide annual cargo transportation in the amount of fifty million tons.
On July 09, 2014, on the section of the Lodya - Taksimo section, in a solemn atmosphere on the occasion of the celebration of the anniversary date - the fortieth anniversary of the start of construction of the BAM, a “silver” link was laid.
December 2013 marked the beginning of new design and survey work on the track section between Khani and Tynda, which was headed by specialists from Chelyabzheldorproekt, which is a branch of Roszheldorproekt OJSC. The implementation of this project involves the construction of eleven new units of railway sidings: Ivanokita, Medvezhye, Mostovoy, Studenchesky, Zayachy, Sosnovy, Glukhariny, Mokhovy and other station points. This named area has the highest load compared to other areas. Therefore, new second branches of tracks with a total length of one hundred kilometers will appear here within three years.
At the beginning of 2015, during one day, two thousand cars passed through the Tynda station. Upon completion of the reconstruction, it is planned that the value of this indicator will be tripled. During the construction of the second tracks, it was planned to use rail sleeper grids with a reinforced concrete base.
With the onset of 2014, new second railway tracks were laid on the existing embankment. Some sections of the embankment were used as a road, so during the construction of the railway, the embankment was corrected. The presence of subsidence occurred due to climatic conditions, the reason for this is the presence of permafrost. All detected drawdowns have been eliminated. At the same time, the restoration of the former rotation camps is underway. The energy supply system, all signaling devices for communication, blocking and centralization are also subject to deep reconstruction. All new sidings will have seamless tracks and will be additionally equipped with turnouts, with a pneumatic blowing system operating on compressed air.
Assessments of the project for the construction of the Baikal-Amur Mainline are given differently, sometimes diametrically opposed. Some cite statements about the high cost, scale and romance, linking the latter factor with beautiful and amazing nature. At the same time, calling the creation of all these railway lines a pointless exercise, since the main question: “Why was this road built?” remained in the air, left unanswered. Modern prices for rail transportation already take into account all costs that will cover the amount of losses incurred. There is no talk of profits yet.
Other pundits express their thoughts of the opposite order. Despite the absence of such an indicator as profitability, BAM became the impetus that made it possible to develop local production. Without the presence of such a railway line, it would be simply impossible to develop anything in this region. Given the large size of our country, we must not forget the significance of the geopolitical role of the road.
The current President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, stated the fact that the created road is a necessary and necessary infrastructure, which will certainly receive further development in the future. One should not discount the importance of the road in the national economy and in the military-strategic one. Today's resources of the BAM are already beginning to be insufficient for the needs of the national economy. That is why modernization of the entire Baikal road was needed.
As for the presence of interesting facts, they are there, but it depends on what counts as an interesting event. It is no secret to anyone today that during the construction of the BAM, construction troops in the amount of two corps belonging to the armed forces of the Soviet Union were used for their intended purpose.
The construction of the road solved the transport problem of duplicating the Trans-Siberian Railway. This was especially felt during the period of tense relations with the People's Republic of China. One of the asteroids is named after the abbreviation of the same name for the road. The discovery of this asteroid took place at the Crimean Observatory on October 8, 1969 by astronomer Lyudmila Chernykh.
There are also incidental cases regarding knowledge of the Russian language, since the phrase: “Baikal-Amur Mainline”, based on the main word “magistral”, refers to the feminine gender, but the used abbreviation “BAM” should be classified as masculine.
For the needs of BAM, in 1976, ten thousand onboard trucks and dump trucks of the Magirus-Deutz brand with an air-cooled diesel engine were supplied from Germany. In fairness, it should be noted that a number of cars continue to work fully on the roads of the Far East today. And in those distant seventies, these cars were considered comfortable and prestigious, compared to our domestic trucks. Other foreign equipment also worked on the construction of this highway.
There are also many sad pages associated with the use of prison labor in heavy construction work. At that time this was common practice on a national scale. Well, in those days there was no need to be surprised when meeting the famous writer Anastasia Tsvetaeva, who was related to the poetess Marina Tsvetaeva, or the philosopher and engineer Pavel Florensky, at the construction of the BAM.
April 27, 2009 marked 35 years since the day when the first All-Union Komsomol shock detachment, a detachment named after the XVII Congress of the Komsomol, set off to build the Baikal-Amur Mainline. This day became the day of the second birth of BAM - with it the active construction of the highway began in several directions at once.
The Baikal-Amur Mainline (BAM) is a railway in Eastern Siberia and the Far East, the second main (along with the Trans-Siberian Railway) railway access of Russia to the Pacific Ocean.
The Baikal-Amur Mainline runs from Taishet to Sovetskaya Gavan and runs through the territory of the Irkutsk, Chita, Amur regions, Buryatia and Yakutia, and the Khabarovsk Territory. The total length of the highway is 4,300 kilometers.
The main line of the BAM - section Ust-Kut (on the Lena River) - Komsomolsk-on-Amur (3110 km); it is adjacent to two sections built in the late 1940s - early 1950s (Taishet - Ust-Kut and Komsomolsk-on-Amur - Sovetskaya Gavan).
The BAM is connected to the Trans-Siberian Railway by three connecting lines: Bamovskaya - Tynda, Izvestkovaya - Urgal and Volochaevka - Komsomolsk.
By 2015, it is planned to build 8 sidings, 2 low-power slides and 18 additional tracks at BAM; reconstruction of the Korshunovsky tunnel is also planned.
The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources
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